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U.S. President Donald Trump has sparked fresh online discussion after sharing side-by-side photos of himself and former President Barack Obama from their younger years, just days after Obama joked that he still occupies space in Trump’s thoughts.Trump posted the images on his Truth Social account on Saturday, June 27.

The post followed an AI-generated image of himself holding the Earth while carrying an American flag over his shoulder, as well as a photograph from a recent UFC event held outside the White House.

The side-by-side image featured a photo of Trump during his years at the New York Military Academy next to a picture of Obama at Occidental College, showing the former president wearing a wide-brimmed hat and smoking a cigarette. Obama has previously spoken publicly about his long struggle to quit smoking after picking up the habit as a teenager.

Trump captioned the images, “D. Trump, 20” and “B.H. Obama, 18.” However, the age listed for Trump quickly drew criticism, with his niece and outspoken critic, Mary Trump, noting that he graduated from the New York Military Academy in 1964 at age 17, suggesting the caption may have been inaccurate.

Although Trump did not explain the reason for posting the photos, many social media users viewed the comparison as a response to comments Obama made earlier this week during an appearance on the All the Smoke podcast.

Speaking on the podcast, Obama joked that Trump remains preoccupied with him years after he left office.

“The obsession,” Obama said. “I obviously have a room in his head. A suite in his head. When I was president, the last thing I had time to do was worry about what somebody said or what my predecessor did. They’re gone. I’ve got work to do.”

Obama also claimed that Trump rarely directs such criticism toward him in person.

The latest exchange adds another chapter to the long-running political rivalry between the two leaders. Trump has frequently criticized Obama during campaign rallies and on social media, while in recent weeks he has also shared AI-generated images mocking the former president, including one depicting Obama’s presidential center as a dumpster.

Neither Trump nor Obama has publicly commented further on the latest social media post.

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Tehran said Sunday it carried out a third day of retaliatory strikes against US attacks on Iranian territory, as both accused the other of violating their fragile ceasefire, straining negotiations meant to end the Middle East war.

The exchanges underscored the fragility of a Pakistan-brokered peace process aimed at ending a war launched by the United States and Israel in February, which disrupted shipping through the Strait of Hormuz and rattled global energy markets.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said on Sunday they were taking measures to control traffic in the vital Strait of Hormuz and that violating vessels would be dealt with more firmly than before.

The only authorised passage by Tehran passes through a corridor running along Iran’s coast.

The Guards said they had also carried out retaliatory strikes in Kuwait and Bahrain.

In a statement, they said the strikes “destroyed eight important US military facilities at the Ali al-Salem base in Kuwait and at the Fifth Fleet naval base in Port Salman in Bahrain”.

“Any enemy aggression, whatever the pretext, even against insignificant targets… will have a crushing response,” the Guards said.

Air raid sirens rang out twice in Bahrain on Sunday, according to the Gulf nation’s interior ministry.

A memorandum of understanding was reached in mid-June under Pakistan’s mediation, aimed at putting a lasting end to the war.

The text signed by the United States and Iran said both countries, and their respective allies, were “not to initiate any war or any military operation against each other and to refrain from the threat or use of force against each other”.

– Iran would ‘no longer exist’ –

US President Donald Trump said Saturday that Iran would “no longer exist” if the United States is “forced” to resume the war.

The threat came after US forces said they struck “multiple” Iranian targets Saturday in another tit-for-tat response to attacks on shipping in the Strait of Hormuz.

“United States aircraft just struck Iranian missile and drone storage locations, and coastal radar sites, for violating the Cease Fire Agreement, AGAIN!” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

“There may come a point when we are no longer able to be reasonable, and will be forced to militarily complete the job that we very successfully started. If that happens, the Islamic Republic of Iran will no longer exist!” Trump wrote.

– Shipping lanes under fire –

US Central Command said Saturday’s strikes were in response to an Iranian drone attack on the Panama-flagged oil tanker “Kiku,” which was carrying some two million barrels of crude.

The US military said its operation targeted “surveillance infrastructure, communication systems, air defense sites, drone storage facilities, and minelayer capabilities”.

Iranian media reported several explosions in the Sirik and Qeshm areas of southern Iran.

Washington had carried out similar strikes on Friday, saying they were a response to an earlier Iranian attack on another vessel, the “Ever Lovely”.

Israel, meanwhile, launched strikes in Lebanon as Hezbollah’s leader Naim Qassem rejected a deal to end that conflict, which has also threatened to derail the wider US-Iran peace effort.

Iran called “these brutal attacks… a blatant violation” of the interim truce deal.

Iran has warned vessels not to enter or leave the Gulf through the strait without permission, but ships have continued to move, some using a route not authorised by Tehran.

In the memorandum of understanding Iran had previously agreed “safe passage of commercial vessels with no charge, for 60 days only, from the Persian Gulf to the Sea of Oman, and vice versa” in the strait.

H.A. Hellyer, of London think tank the Royal United Services Institute, said “Iran is likely to continue calibrated, low-level coercive activity in and around the Strait of Hormuz… to create persistent pressure on international shipping without triggering a wider conflict.”

He said November’s US midterm elections for Congress give Washington “incentives for a quicker agreement” while, for Iran, “a drawn-out negotiation accompanied by controlled pressure in the strait can work to its advantage”.

– Lebanon threats –

Lebanon was drawn into the Middle East war in early March, when militant group Hezbollah launched rockets at Israel in support of Iran. That provoked an Israeli invasion and fighting that has also undermined the US-Iran ceasefire.

Israel and Lebanon signed an agreement on Friday supported by the US aimed at securing long-term peace between the two countries.

Hezbollah’s chief Qassem rejected the deal a day later, calling it “humiliating, shameful and a surrender of sovereignty.”

He instead called for the full implementation of Washington’s deal with Tehran, which includes an end to the fighting in Lebanon.

Hezbollah has repeatedly called for a full Israeli withdrawal from southern Lebanon, but the Washington deal does not appear to provide for that.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has insisted Israeli troops will remain in the so-called security zone they occupy in southern Lebanon, with civilians prevented from returning until Hezbollah is disarmed.

The Israeli premier called the deal historic on Saturday and “a blow to Iran and Hezbollah.”

But Netanyahu’s far-right security minister Itamar Ben Gvir denounced it as “a big mistake” and insisted that only Israeli forces were capable of disarming Hezbollah.

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Rescue crews raced Saturday to find survivors in the rubble of Venezuela’s powerful earthquakes as the death toll reached 1,430 and hopes dwindled more than three days after the earth roared and rumbled.

Tens of thousands of people were reported missing as collapsed buildings dotted cities in a country already enduring an economic crisis and political upheaval after US special forces captured authoritarian leader Nicolas Maduro in January.

Millions of people were also feared to lack sanitation and other basic needs.

Experts say the first 72 hours after natural disasters are the key, narrow window for finding the living. After that the search becomes one of recovering bodies.

A Salvadoran rescue worker who declined to give his name put it this way: “At this point, they are probably dead bodies. Thanks to God maybe we can find people still alive.”

An 11-year-old boy was rescued from the rubble in Caraballeda, in the north of the country, late Saturday, interim leader Delcy Rodriguez said.

“Every life is a source of hope for Venezuela,” she said in a post on X, accompanied by a video of the rescue.

Facing public outrage at the response by local officials, US-backed Rodriguez thanked other countries for the outpouring of aid.

The United States said one runway at Simon Bolivar International Airport was partially functioning to receive C-17 US military planes, while a naval ship had arrived off the coast.

The search for survivors saw desperate attempts by local residents to claw away rubble from buildings that collapsed in Wednesday’s two quakes.

“It’s just very chaotic, hot and unorganized,” said Australian firefighter Craig Demeillon, 43, who traveled alone to La Guaira from Miami to help. “Hopefully there’s more people to find.”

UN aid chief Tom Fletcher on Friday told AFP the death toll could continue to soar, adding that more than 50,000 people were missing.

– Newborn rescued –

There was joy in the hardest-hit coastal area of La Guaira, north of Caracas, when locals pulled an infant alive out of the wreckage on Friday, around 32 hours after the magnitude 7.2 and 7.5 tremors.

In one social media video, a man welled up in tears as he held the baby in his arms.

The UN migration agency said it had examined available population and damage data and had determined that “up to 6.76 million people could be affected,” and would “require emergency shelter, safe water, sanitation and hygiene services, healthcare, protection support and essential relief items.”

National Assembly President Jorge Rodriguez reported on Saturday 1,430 dead and 3,238 people injured, while the UN estimated $6.7 billion in physical damage — equivalent to six percent of Venezuela’s GDP.

– ‘Permit to save lives’ –

Venezuelans — already battered by years of a failing economy and the turbulence of the US intervention to topple Maduro in January — were furious at the government.

Yessica Mendoza was forced to transport her own daughter to a morgue in Caracas after 25-year-old Yesimar Rodriguez and her husband Jhomel Anaya, 26, did not survive the tumbling debris of their home in La Guaira on Wednesday.

“We were the ones who pulled them out ourselves. No help ever came,” the bereaved mother, 43, told AFP, adding that the couple would be cremated without a wake due to the rapidly advancing decomposition of their bodies.

The government has restricted access to La Guaira state, deployed the military to the area and made it obligatory for volunteers to obtain a safe-entry pass.

Anger among those impatiently waiting to volunteer surged as they waited for passes outside a concert hall in the capital.

“You need a permit to save lives — just imagine,” complained Carlos Itriago, 27.

“I’ve been here since dawn standing in line so I can go rescue people,” said Ezequiel Rivero, 53.

“Look at what time it is… how many lives have we already lost by now?”

– Venezuela already in trouble –

Rodriguez said she had spoken with US President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who “reaffirmed their commitment to supporting the response efforts.”

The US said earlier it was sending a disaster response team of more than 250 personnel, including three special search-and-rescue units with dogs trained to locate people trapped beneath the rubble.

Twenty-one countries were sending search-and-rescue teams, parliament chief Rodriguez said.

Venezuela’s worst earthquakes in more than a century have come after the oil-rich country endured more than a decade of economic collapse.

The crisis has hollowed out hospitals and public services, driving millions to leave the country.

And the country remains in a fragile political transition six months after the US ouster of Maduro.

Earthquakes of similar magnitude claimed more than 200,000 lives in Haiti in January 2010 and 73,000 lives in Kashmir in October 2005.

Those killed in Venezuela included 28 Portuguese nationals, six Spaniards, two Brazilians, seven Chinese nationals, one Chilean, one Italian-Venezuelan and one Uruguayan.